Booz Allen Hamilton

Meeting the mobility desires of today’s talent

A need to optimize talent sourcing

Given an increasingly competitive talent market, Booz Allen Hamilton needed to shift its approach to recruitment and update its talent sourcing process. A perceived lack of internal mobility opportunities coupled with challenges finding good talent for teams, held the company back from its highest performance potential. Recognizing this, Booz Allen wanted to better optimize the way it recruited and leveraged employees across the firm. In tandem with development of an overall talent brand expression, Booz Allen wanted to design a way to increase the ease of connections between employees and hiring managers.

Creating a tool that addresses employee desires

To address this need, Booz Allen launched an internal app. The app helps employees discover and pursue firm-wide opportunities for change, growth, and development while simultaneously enabling hiring managers to source talent more quickly and efficiently. It uses an algorithm to intelligently identify and match anonymous Booz Allen profiles to open requisitions that hiring managers across the firm have posted. Booz Allen turned to us to develop the app’s overall expression through naming, messaging and development of touch points for dissemination.

Developing a name that calls employees into new roles

We explored name possibilities recognizing that the app’s name would need to set the tone, provide clarity about the purpose of the app and encourage someone to become a user. It was also necessary for the name to connect back to the company’s greater employee value proposition and possess relevance for both employees and hiring managers. The chosen name, RoleCall, speaks to the idea of pursuing a calling — of deep importance to employees. It also suggests contact, connection, opportunity and convenience — qualities that allude to the app’s intent.

Speaking to distinct user needs

Within the app, we developed highly targeted content to create an overall experience that aligned with the distinct needs of employees and hiring managers. For employees, content was crafted speaking to their desires to be part of the firm, make contributions and add value. For hiring managers, it was important to communicate benefits of the app — its ability to help streamline their process, add visibility, qualify candidates and provide faster connections.

Fostering connections and engagement

To encourage engagement with the app, we also developed communication touchpoints guided by the overall talent brand expression. These included a promotional video highlighting the features and benefits of the new app, email announcements and an eBrochure. Moving forward, there is real potential to further leverage the app — giving greater strategic emphasis to its ability to address retention and desired growth needs.

The essence of employee engagement is where both parties know the rules and you are dancing to the same tune — your brand purpose and values. One party leads and the other follows, yet both are free to interpret and express themselves in synch with the rhythms of the music and the beat of the brand.